ALEXANDER ARCHIPENKO (1887-1964)
Archipenko was born in Kiev, Russia, where he studied art before moving to Paris in 1909. Part of the cubist movement, his work is exhibited in many major museums.
COUNTEE CULLEN (1903-1946)
Raised in Harlem by the Reverend Frederick Ashbury Cullen, Countee became a poet whose writings gained renown during the Harlem Renaissance. His works were published in literary magazines including The Crisis and Opportunity.
RUDOLPH FISHER (1897-1934)
Although he was trained and worked as a physician, Fisher is best known as a fiction writer. He is considered one of the first African American authors to write detective novels, which include The Conjure Man Dies and Walls of Jericho.
JAMES MONTGOMERY FLAGG (1877-1960)
Born in Pelham Manor, New York, Flagg is best known for his World War I recruiting poster depicting Uncle Sam, “I Want You!”
ANNA HYATT HUNTINGTON (1876-1973)
As a sculptor, Huntington produced large public works and is best known for equestrian monuments including the statue of Jose Marti in Central Park. With her husband, Archer, she established Brookgreen Gardens in South Carolina.
J.C. LEYENDECKER (1874-1951)
A famous illustrator, Leyendecker is widely recognized for his covers of the Saturday Evening Post and the “Arrow Collar Man.”
HERMAN MELVILLE (1819-1891)
One of America’s greatest writers, Melville is best known as the author of the novel Moby Dick.
ELIZABETH COCHRANE SEAMAN “NELLIE BLY” (1864 – 1922)
At the age of nineteen, Elizabeth broke into journalism with an indignant letter to the editor of the Pittsburgh Dispatch protesting an anti-suffrage editorial. After testing her on freelance assignments, the editor gave her a job as a reporter. She chose the by-line “Nelly Bly,” after the Stephen Foster song. She became America’s first investigative reporter, becoming famous for her undercover story on the condition of Mental Institutions for Joseph Pulitzer’s The World.
THOMAS NAST (1840-1902)
Nast was a cartoonist and illustrator who created what is typically considered the classic image of Santa Claus for Harper’s magazine in 1863. He was well known for his political cartoons and was responsible for the creation of the Republican elephant and Democrat donkey mascots.
DOROTHY PARKER (1893-1967)
Born Dorothy Rothschild on August 22, 1893, Dorothy Parker was a legendary literary journalist, writer and poet. She worked on such magazines as Vogue and Vanity Fair during the late 1910s. Parker went on to work as a book reviewer for The New Yorker in the 1920s. A selection of her reviews for this magazine was published in 1970 as Constant Reader, the title of her column. She remained a contributor to The New Yorker for many years. In addition to her writing, Dorothy Parker was a noted member of the New York literary scene in the 1920s. In 1919, Parker formed a group called the Algonquin Round Table, an informal group of writers who lunched at the Algonquin Hotel. Parker was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1959. Discovered dead of a heart attack at the age of 73, she was a firm believer in civil rights, and bequeathed her literary estate to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Upon Dr. King’s assassination some months later, the estate was turned over to the NAACP. Her ashes were interred in a memorial garden at the NAACP headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland and when the NAACP moved their headquarters to D.C., her cremains were returned to her hometown and interred in Woodlawn Cemetery beside her parents and grandparents.
GEORGE POST (1837-1913)
Post received his formal training as a civil engineer and started his career as an architect under Richard Morris Hunt. Post designed the New York Stock Exchange Building and was a contributor to the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.
GERTRUDE VANDERBILT WHITNEY (1875-1942)
Granddaughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt and the wife of Harry Payne Whitney, Gertrude was a sculptor who created many public works. She was also a collector of American art and the founder of the Whitney Museum in New York.